Anyway I exploded about the Kirby Settlement on Twitter yesterday.

Alright, I’ll be the one to say it, then. If you’re working for Marvel, today you need to shut up about the Kirby settlement. Here’s why

If you’re pro Jack Kirby getting his rightful credit and his family being fairly accommodated by Marvel, that’s great, but…You’ve left it too late now. You should have said something when it mattered. Like The Journal, DC, Miller did in the 80’s.

Your silence has been deafening and noted.

On the other hand, if you’re in the ‘Marvel are right because you don’t know as much as me’ camp. Shut up. You sound like an Uncle Tom. I’m not being told how to think on this by anyone who happily made more money from Jack Kirby’s concepts than Kirby ever did. Keep ignoring the fact that possibly the second most significant law suit in the history of comics has been settled out of court.

A few minutes later, this happened…

Annnnd 1st DM comes in… ‘Nevs, what if people working for Marvel don’t know this stuff?’ Bollocks. Mate. Bollocks. Er, hello? Welcome to 2014. You can quickly look up every porn Greg Land possibly traced but you can’t find ‘Jack Kirby 88 Pages’? Bullshit. Anyway, ignore me. I’m sure there’s a freeze-frame from Avengers 2 you’ll want to drool over #irony101 But your apathy towards this is one more reason why I couldn’t give a fuck what ‘offends’ you. Still, #Gotg2, eh? YAYLUZ

(Later, I got a series of DMs from someone who’s just started their career at Marvel in the last couple of years, saying that I needed to learn to grow up, understand the ‘realities’ of the business and I’d never get a ‘real’ job in the comics industry. I pointed out I wasn’t interested in writing comics, I’ve been steadily employed in comics for nearly 20 years and if I were going to write any comics, it certainly wouldn’t be for Marvel.)

Well, that was an ‘interesting*’ lecture via DM/ It’s funny how much ‘You need to grow up’ just sounds like ‘You need to sell out’.

*Patronising bollocks.

Anyway, it’s been…a day, so I’m gonna say this and then go play Lego Marvel for the night #trollolololol (Oh, hush, my stalker bought me a copy last Christmas. Like I’d start my career writing a series of columns slagging off Marvel and then spend a fair amount of my career creating revenue for them. That’d be hypocritical, wouldn’t it?)

I say the stuff I say because to be honest, I don’t understand why no one else says it. I’m not telling you anything you can’t look up, I’m sure there are people who want to believe that Marvel, DC, Disney are just little wonderful factories that pump out slabs of joy. But there are enough people in the world who thinks creations are more important than people. I don’t need to be one more.

I care more about BIll Finger than Batman. And there seems to be this odd..hostility towards the conversations concerning the treatment of comics creators…Like ‘Could you just shut up about Moore, Kirby, etc? We just want to enjoy our Big Two product in peace!’

Well. No. No you can’t. You grew up reading superhero comics. You ought to have learned the one lesson that matters from them: You fight the Big Bad no matter what the cost, The Big Bad is the hunk of machinery on Spidey’s book in Amazing Spidey 38.You hurt yourself for the greater good because you have to. ‘You have to be one of the Good ones, Jesse, because there’s way too many of the Bad.’

I’m fairly fucking sure I’ve blown any chance of having a comics writing gig because I say what I see. To which: Good.If working in comics means being an amoral suck up who ignores doing what’s right to get work, You’re alright, there. I don’t need fame.Why does this shit need repeating? Because it wasn’t THAT long ago that Stan Lee tried to convince the world he created Captain America. When he was twelve.

If anyone from Marvel wants to come along and ‘put me right’ about this, this is going to be my standard response: ‘Did you create income for Marvel that could have been used to help sue the Kirby family? Then I don’t care what you think about anything.’

You may return to your ‘HEY YOU GUIZ GOTHAM IS TEH AWESUMS! OH WOW MANARA IS SATAN WHO IS KIRBY LOL’ now.

One day you’re going to wake up and realise which side of the bed you’ve been sleeping on.